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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Southeast Watershed Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #411732
Research Project: Shifting the Balance of Water Resources and Interacting Agroecosystem Services Toward Sustainable Outcomes in Watersheds of the Southern Coastal Plain

Location: Southeast Watershed Research

Title: Climate agroecoregions as a framework for characterizing cropping patterns across the USDA-LTAR Network

Author
item Coffin, Alisa
item GOSLEE, SARAH - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item Pisarello, Kathryn
item PONCE-CAMPOS, GUILLERMO - University Of Arizona
item HOLIFIELD COLLINS, CHANDRA - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item BAFFAUT, CLAIRE - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)

Submitted to: US-International Association for Landscape Ecology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/8/2024
Publication Date: 4/2/2024
Citation: Coffin, A.W., Goslee, S., Pisarello, K., Ponce-Campos, G., Holifield Collins, C., Baffaut, C. 2024. Climate agroecoregions as a framework for characterizing cropping patterns across the USDA-LTAR Network. US-International Association for Landscape Ecology. Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Regionalization Project team of the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Long-Term Agroecosystem Research network (LTAR) has been developing sets of agroecoregions based on environmental factors, crop and livestock production, and on socioeconomic variables: three domains LTAR uses to frame its research. Climate constrains cropping system potentials, so the climate and crop production agroecoregions provide separate and complementary approaches to understanding US cropping systems. We intersected the USDA Cropland Data Layer (CDL) with the seventeen LTAR climate agroecoregions by aggregating the 30m CDL data to the 4km grid from the PRISM climate data, and then summarizing across climate agroecoregion. This process was repeated for CDL years 2008 through 2022, roughly corresponding to the fifteen-year climate quantiles (2006-2020) used to construct the regional boundaries. While the most dominant field crops such as corn and soybeans are found in nearly all regions and showed little within-region dynamics, other economically important crops including tree fruit and tobacco had greater regional specificity and stronger temporal dynamics. This analysis can help the LTAR Network articulate the importance of regional climate and cropping pattern dynamics and facilitate engagement with stakeholders to identify impacts and climate-informed response strategies.